Essay evised

Bauhaus. The Beginning of Industrial design
The benefit of hindsight allows us to explore the way that Bauhaus students and masters used the new technology and processes available to them to develop a new kind of design. The type of design we now refer to these days as industrial design. Including how the theories and designs produced during the time of the schools existence have had a lasting effect on designs being produce by present day industrial designers. My initial conclusions are that it was the combining of the arts and new technology which has lead to the mass production of commodities that we now see today. The many and varied designs that were produced are products of the era in the sense that they were very minimalist instead of the extravagant designs that were the norm before the opening of the school. A characteristic which can be put down to the fact that it was post war and in the middle of the great depression and so money and resources would have been scarce. This is possibly a major factor why the minimal no frills designs managed to find popularity. This minimalist approach became the foundations of the Design era Known as Modernism. By tracing the history of the famous school we can see the lasting influences that it has had on modern day design as well as the way the teaching style developed by the school in the early years has been continued through to the modern day. This continuation has only been possible through the continued refinement by the many masters and teachers of the school. This refinement has shaped it into a very effective and successful education style that has been adopted by many design schools worldwide.
The Bauhaus (House of Building) School of design began in 1919. It was initially located in the German town of Weimer by an accomplished architect of the times, Walter Gropius. Despite the fact that the school was foundered by an architect it did not run an architecture program till several years after its opening. Walter Gropius had a vision. He wanted to develop new education method and style in the area of design. He was convinced that the best way to achieve this was through Handicraft. He saw it necessary that the school become a workshop and that the students would be taught by artists and craftsmen. The intention of this being to remove the division between that of Fine arts and that of applied arts. Gropius tried to achieve this by having duel directorships of the Bauhaus workshops. Students were instructed by a “Master of form” (the master of form being an artist) and a “Master of craft” (the master of craft being a craftsman). Gropius intended the pairing of the two masters to make up for the lack of individuals who combine Art and craft. However this arrangement proved problematic as there was tension within the group psychology.(Rainer 29-37). Up until Gropius decided to combine the styles there was a clear division between the two art forms and the education of these was largely theoretical. Despite this the schools purpose was redirected in 1923. It had become apparent to Gropius that for the school to survive in a technical civilization its programs had to change. The Bauhaus would now produce prototypes for mass production. The aspects of function and form were to be applied to the new prototypes that students were producing. This could be viewed as the first step into creating the world of industrial design. Amassing allowances was becoming ever more difficult for this new type of education style and so in 1925 when the Thueringer government stopped supporting the school economically the school was moved and found its new home in Dessau. After the move in 1926 the Masters where promoted to professors. Despite the success of the school Gropius Left the Bauhaus in 1928. His successor was a Swiss architect Hannes Meyer. Meyer pushed the scientific development in design training. He was dismissed due to his inability to lead in 1930. German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe then became head of the school and turned the Bauhaus in to more of a vocational university before it was closed in 1933 under the Nazi regime.(www.bauhaus.de)
During the time of the Bauhaus’s existence there was an economic depression. This depression was worst felt in Germany. The depression was due to the fact that post World War 1 Germany had very large debts to pay and also heavy restrictions placed on their industries. This was because the allied countries feared Germany becoming to powerfully once more and restarting the war. To pay and service the large debts the German government owed. The German reserve bank began printing money to the point where money became worthless. This plunged the county into a massive depression, the one that is now refer to as the Great Depression. Money and resources (Not just raw materials like steel and wood but fuel and even food) were short in the community and so people no longer could afford or justify the extravagant items which were main stream before the Great War. Wants became needs and so design followed suit. Designs were stripped back to the basics, Framing became exposed, Function, aesthetic and form became very important. By designing in this way cost of materials as well as the cost of production where able to be kept to a minimum. A good example of this style of design is, Marcel Breuer’s Wassily chair. The framing is exposed and made of round tubing bend to create the form of the chair. This chair consists of only two main materials, round tubing and leather. Even though the chairs framing consists of only round tubing it is crafted in a way that it creates the form of a fully framed lounge chair. The chair itself is simple, aesthetically pleasing and uses minimal materials. With the scarcity of wealth and resources it is easy to see how this type of design found popularity. People felt like they were getting a no frills item. One that did the job it was assigned with no fancy add ons. This type of design is also well suited to the mass production methods that were being developed during the times of the early 20th century. Mass productions of objects meant that large numbers of objects could be produced quickly, cheaply and accurately.
Despite the Fact that the Bauhaus was closed in 1933 by the Nazis it was re-opened in Chicago in 1937. The German Bauhaus design styles had a large impact in America. This lead to the Successor to the German Bauhaus dubbed the” New Bauhaus”. The New Bauhaus adopted the curriculum of the original Bauhaus which had been developed by Walter Gropius, other heads of the school and masters in Weimer and Dessau. The New school in Chicago was founded by previous master Laszlo Moholy-Nagy of the German school. The teaching methods and curriculum developed in the early stages of the school under Walter Gropius were use as a starting point for the school in Chicago and then went on to be further developed and refined. Some of the developments to the curriculum included a more important role in the study of natural and human sciences. Photography was more widely used and prominent within the school in Chicago. The training which students received in the area of mechanical technique became much more sophisticated than that which was taught in the school in Germany a vital step towards modern day industrial design. However the way the school was run got tweaked to meet the requirements of American society. Moholy-Nagy was succeeded By Serge Chermayeff. Though the teaching style and aim of the school remained very similar to that of the original Bauhaus in Weimer. Later in the 1950s The New Bauhaus integrated with the Illinois Institute of Technology. It is still to this day part of the Illinois Institute of Technology and is regarded and respected as a professionally oriented school of design. This continuation of the school and its unique teaching styles to the present day has allowed it to shape the way industrial design is approached and the designs that are being produced. Since the opening of the Bauhaus an industrial designers primary focus is designing and developing products and prototypes that are well resolved in their function and form and can be easily mass produced. Now days the industrial designer designs the product itself and a lot of the time the method and process in which it is produced. Even in our own school of design (Victoria school of architecture and design) we approach design in a very hands on and technical way and consider the way in which items are produced. An influence that traces its origins right back in the 1920s Bauhaus and Walter Gropius’s vision.
The Masters and students of the early Bauhaus moved away from the traditional materials and were instead were fanatical about metal. This is very evident in a lot of the furniture designs. With the use of these new materials designers could exploit the properties of metal to produce new simple elegant designs. Tube steel was lighter, easily worked, cheap. Steel has flex and is easily bent to exact measurements. For the Bauhaus designers it was pure, Clean and hygienic. The perfect material to make a beautiful home.(Labuttis) Later after the conclusion of World War two when the Bauhaus had made it’s way to America the aluminium industry took off. It became a very popular material as designers started to look at the way it could be applied to the home. It was no longer something just applied to military products. Aluminium had the strength of steel at half the weight. This opened up the door to many more possibilities. With the drive that the cold war between Russia and the US was providing it pushed the direction of home design into the area of portable nomadic furniture and appliances “The aluminium house was the post-war soldier’s house- demountable, temporary, on the go” (Colomina, Beatriz. Brennan, Annmarie and Kim, Jeannie). It was the exploration and exploitation of new materials which allowed the designers to mass produce objects more easily and produce very modernist style objects. The techniques used and developed at the Bauhaus are still used in modern day designs and is easily seen in a lot of modern day furniture design.
It is easy to see when we trace the history of Bauhaus design from its founding in Weimer in 1919 by Walter Gropius to the modern day where it now resides in the US, how this ideology has played a major role in the way we now approach industrial design. It gave birth to industrial design. The learning techniques that were first developed in the early days has turned us from artists or Craftsmen to a combination of both. We also need to include the refinements to the style that were added when the school moved to America. The additions to the coarse and slight focus change brought the aspects of ergonomics and photography into our world of design and have meant that an Industrial designer is able to create a product from start to finish. We have a clear understanding of how people interact with it and are more than capable of present it. Industrial design would be impossible without the hands on approach. To resolve ideas and concepts we need to experiment with different materials and model and experiment with different media. The combination of the art side with that of the craft means that we can take our idea from the drawing board to the workshop with ease. The introduction of new materials such as Aluminium and the techniques of working these materials allowed the creation of very modern designs and has changed the way we view the beauty of an object. Without the use and introduction of these materials many of the designs would not have been achievable both in aesthetic appeal and structurally. The orientation of prototype production has laid the foreground for modern day mass production. This has been very influential because this technique has spread to all corners of design not just that of industrial. In the 21st century the majority of products we use and interact with are in fact mass produced. Now when we design something in industrial design we don’t just design the object but the process in which it is made.

















Rainer K, Wick. “Teaching at the Bauhaus” Hatje cantz publishers Germany. 2000. Page: 29-37.
Hochman, Elaines. “Bauhaus: Crucible of Modernism”. 1st edition. Fromm international, New York. 1997.
Whitford, Frank. “Bauhaus”. Herbert press, London. 1985
Colomina, Beatriz. Brennan, Annmarie and Kim, Jeannie. “Cold war Hothouse: inventing postwar culture from cockpit to playboy”. Princeton architectural press.
Labuttis, Klaus. www.dezignare.com/newsletter/bauhausmovement.html
Also looked at:
www.qdesign.co.nz/designhist-bauh.html
www.germanculture.com.ua/labrary/weekly
www.bauhaus.de/english/bauhaus1919/index.htm